In Spite of All the Danger

In Spite of All the Danger
The Quarrymen
publication	1995
length	3 min 25 s (Original) 2 min 44 s ( Anthology - Version)
Genre (s)	Rock song
Author (s)	Paul McCartney , George Harrison

In Spite of All the Danger ( English Despite all the danger ) is a song from 1958 by the British school band The Quarrymen , from which the Beatles later emerged. It was composed by Paul McCartney and George Harrison . A commercial publication took place only in 1995 as part of the Anthology series.

background

In Spite of All the Danger one of the first two recordings is by Paul McCartney, John Lennon and George Harrison. At that time, the three were still playing under the name The Quarrymen , accompanied by John Lowe (piano) and Colin Hanton (drums). McCartney later claimed to have composed the song alone. Since the band was not yet familiar with copyright information , they added George Harrison as the additional author, as he played the guitar solo on the recording. McCartney wrote the song when he was around 14 years old, and he says it is closely based on a song by Elvis Presley (probably Tryin 'to Get to You ).

admission

The song was recorded in 1958 in a private studio in Liverpool owned by Percy F. Phillips (1896-1984). In addition to In Spite of All the Danger , the band also recorded That'll Be the Day by Buddy Holly . Both songs were recorded live on tape in just a quarter of an hour using a single microphone . The recordings were then pressed onto a 10 ″ shellac record . The tape was not archived, but re-recorded for each recording in the studio. Phillips charged the quarrymen 17  shillings and 6  pence for this . However, the band could only raise 15 shillings, so Phillips kept the shellac record for a few days until the remaining money was paid.

publication

Since the five-piece band now had to share a shellac record, they agreed that everyone could keep the record for a week. First it was owned by John Lennon, who gave it to McCartney, then it went to George Harrison, Colin Hanton and finally to John Lowe. She kept this for the next 23 years.

In 1981, Lowe had the record valued by the British auction house Sotheby’s , which was reported in the Sunday Times . Paul McCartney then contacted Lowe to buy the record from him. The exact purchase price is not known. It is known that McCartney's first offer of £ 5,000 was  rejected by Lowe.

McCartney had In Spite of All the Danger and That'll Be the Day reworked the sound of a sound engineer and then gave around 50 copies of the record to friends and family members.

It wasn't until 1995 that In Spite of All the Danger appeared as part of the Beatles' Anthology series. Here, however, the song was shortened by around 40 seconds. Paul McCartney has played the song occasionally at his concerts since 2004.

In 2004, Record Collector magazine named the original shellac record the most expensive record in England and valued it at £ 100,000 (adjusted for purchasing power: around £ 155,000). The 1981 McCartney copies are estimated at £ 10,000 each.

occupation

• John Lennon: vocals, guitar
• Paul McCartney: guitar, backing vocals
• George Harrison: guitar, backing vocals
• John Lowe: piano
• Colin Hanton: drums

Web links

• In Spite of All the Danger at www.beatlesbible.com

Individual evidence

1. ↑ [1]
2. ↑ [2]
3. ↑ Calculation using a template: inflation .
4. ↑ Calculation using a template: Exchange rate .
5. ↑ [3]